SDL Code Generation for Open Systems

Abstract

SDL claims to be a language for the description of open systems, allowing the integration of other components into an SDL system and that of an SDL system as a mere component into a greater unit. Indeed, SDL provides the possibility for the interaction of a system with its environment. Signals can be exchanged with the environment and in addition the developer may hide arbitrary actions inside external procedures.

Code generators are widely in use to produce runnable code from an SDL system description, decreasing faults and increasing flexibility. But changes in or changes of the communication protocol to the environment still force a code generator to be adapted, costing precious resources.

This paper presents an automated code generation from SDL to C++, which enables the flexible connection of various communication protocols without changing the code generator or adding code manually. A runtime library contains all necessary means for communication to the environment, an approach which has been tested using CORBA and Web Services, but could be adapted easily to arbitrary protocols.

Problems with the choice of appropriate encodings seem to be solved with the recommendation Z.104, which enables the specification of encodings already in the SDL-2000 system. All results presented in this paper are based on the experience gained in practice during several projects using Cinderella SITE.